This is not a sales pitch. Spring begins the busy season for ecommerce recruitment, and I'd like to share with you a few things which may give you some perspective on your careers, and for approximately a third of you, your job search this year.

First, a little math:

There are 1000 companies in the Internet Retailer Top 1000. (Like, duh.) The average tenure for all jobs in the IR-1000 seems to be just shy of 3 years. In other words, folks change jobs about every third year. Meaning, for any existing (non-"new") client-side job you'd like to apply, there will be roughly 330 openings this year, nationwide.

Location ... Role ... Money ... Pick TWO.

There's an old saying in recruiting, Location ... Role ... Money ... Pick TWO. I can't promise these jobs will be local to you, or that they will be at the right comp level, or that relocation assistance will be offered, etc. I can only say that statistically speaking, 330 roles will open. That's 27 per month. Again, nationwide.

These numbers are purely anecdotal, based on my own 10 year career as an ecommerce recruiter. Only Linkedin knows for sure. Regardless, some of these openings will be filled internally, some searches will go to job boards, some will go retained, and some will go to contingency recruiters. Like me.

100% of the shots I don't take don't go in.

By convention, contingency recruiters are bounty hunters, and gunslingers don't get paid by the bullet: We get paid by the client only when we close the search. I'm 100% commission based, and it's never in my financial interest to knock out a good candidate. Unlike retained recruiters, your interests and mine are economically aligned. Like a sports agent, I'm actually incentivized to know all about you, and there are IR-1000 rock stars I've placed 3 times since 2004. If you can do the job and your heart is set on the role -- I'll do my best to get you a thoughtful audience with the client and prepare you for the interview.

This year my company will be contacted by 350 potential clients. We will take 200 of those searches (100% ecommerce), and we will turnover our job board seven times. That's a lot of search activity, yet there's a good chance I'll knock you out at some point. After all, I've KO'd some of the best people in the business -- people who've forgotten more about ecommerce than I'll ever know. When that happens, it's essential that you understand that there are only THREE reasons why your candidacy did not get traction:

You couldn't do the job (you lacked the right technical experience, etc)

You wouldn't do the job (the comp package was too light; the job was in a city your spouse hated; etc)

The hiring committee found someone "more qualified."

About # 3: Not too long ago, I sourced an incredibly talented SEO candidate with an auto parts background for an apparel client of mine. The candidate was highly qualified and possessed a fine blend of street smarts and book smarts. He COULD do the job and WOULD do the job for the specified comp and location. Yet his candidacy was DOA.

Why? Because the hiring manager couldn't “sell it” to the rest of the organization -- and her explanation was fascinating: During her very thoughtful rejection of the candidate, she asked me the following question ...

"Harry, would 'Saving Private Ryan' have been as good of a movie if Jim Carrey had played Tom Hanks' part?"

"Of course not," I scoffed. She asked why, and I reasoned that it would have been impossible for me to watch the movie without expecting Jim Carrey to do something funny. In other words, I just couldn't "see" Carrey in the role, and I would have "projected" his prior characters like Ace Ventura onto the Hanks character of John Miller. Like most movie goers, I have a built in bias against seeing Carrey in anything other than a comedic light.

My hiring manager agreed and explained that in her company, whenever a candidate is hired, a memo is sent out to the entire organization announcing the hire. Immediately, everyone looks up the new hire on LinkedIn, and if they just don't "see" the new hire in the role, the new hire's career can be over before it begins. In my candidate's case, everyone would have eye-rolled "auto parts!" and questioned management's sanity for casting an "auto parts guy" in an apparel role.

This has NOTHING to do with whether the candidate can do the job. It has everything to do with the hiring committee being able to sell their decision to the rest of the organization -- and there's nothing I can do about any of this. It's 100% beyond my control, and no amount of my credibility or personality can sell around this.

Moral of the story: Understand that as your ecommerce career progresses, for better or worse, you will be typecast. It's a reality that can potentially cost you a plum ecommerce job (and me thousands of dollars). The only thing you (WE) can do about it is remain extremely disciplined about the roles you will consider. Most ecommerce execs spend more time planning their vacations than they do their careers. Dumb. At a minimum, you need a system for getting ahead.

You and I are both actors, which explains why my Linkedin bio makes no reference to my career as a commodity trader prior to my becoming a recruiter. Because why would anyone in your position take career advice from a commodity trader? It's inconsistent with the story you want to tell yourself ... and others ... about me.

ATLANTA, GA - As most of my readers know, I look at 50 to 60 ecommerce resumes every day. It's incredible. Many of the best candidates have the worst resumes, and many of the worst candidates have the best resumes.

Perhaps that's because the best candidates are hard at work creating value for their companies, while the lesser candidates are busy worrying about their next gig. I'm not picking on the lesser candidates when I say this, but it does stand to reason that a lesser candidate will be less focused on creating value in their current situation.

Don't you agree?

Anyway, the Internet Retailer Top 500 community is fairly small. By small, I mean that there are no more than 5000 candidates who make up my space. "But Harry," you say, "Anyone can go to Tracked.com and see that Amazon.com has 24,000 employees, and Amazon is just one company."

Indeed, Buckwheat. But when I quote the number 5000, I am referring to ecommerce general managers who would normally be expected to do three things in a transactional ecommerce job:

Drive high-quality traffic;

Improve an average order value; and

Build a company's conversion rate.

Oh, and maybe they'd be required to manage technology integrations. Of these GM's, I'd say there are 5000, and I'm sure that's being generous.

So here's the thing: I have been an ecommerce recruiter for six years now, so it's natural that over the years I have seen the same candidates come through my inbox several times. Let's say that the average job tenure in the IR-500 is two years.

That means that I have seen the average ecommerce candidate work through a normal job cycle three times, and there's nothing wrong with that. These are not job hoppers. These are solid performers who are climbing a career latter with the rungs spaced two years apart.

Some of these candidates I have placed twice. Most of these candidates I have never placed.

What do the winning ecommerce candidates do with the losers don't? I could write a book on this topic, and maybe someday I will. But basically, it boils down to this: my most effective candidates understand that by nature, I am a marketer and a storyteller. Those things are in my DNA.

What's your selling story?

The best e-tail candidates help me understand what's unique about them, and we collaborate very effectively to develop their strategies for specific searches -- based on their self-knowledge, and my knowledge of the client. Clearly, this is not a cookie cutter approach. For each search, we are able to come up with a selling story for the candidate that is ...

Verifiably true (references will back it up / numbers will match),

Critically differentiating (no other candidate can tell a similar story),

But one of the best ways to immediately demonstrate your effectiveness as an ecom general manager is to simply put live URLs in your resume. It's really that simple.

Show and Sell ...

If you have worked with Best Buy as a Director of Online Merchandising, then add the domain BestBuy.com to your resume in every single section where it is relevant. With big sites, you might want to include live links to any micro sites or special subdomains that you have developed for your employer.

Basically, I want to be able to just click through your resume and understand very quickly if the underlying sites that you have worked on look great or look like shit. Really. The proof is in the pudding.

Now then: If your employer's websites look like shit, then you may have a problem because all of my clients want to hire candidates who can make their sites sell more stuff to more people more often for more money. Got that?

And if your employer's website looks like shit, then it will be impossible for my clients to imagine how you can create value for them. (Your only option might be to maintain a blog that looks amazing.)

On the other hand, if your websites look great and your references will testify that you were a star in your company, then I will find a way to help you get the job you want.

1.) I'll send you a quick email expressing my thanks to you for sending your resume ... "However, your background and skills are not in line with my clients' needs, and I wish you the best of luck in your job search. Etc." As a career ecommerce recruiter, I only send these emails to candidates whose backgrounds have very little to do with ecommerce.

OR ...

2.) I'll send you an email saying that "I like your background and I would like to know more about your personal situation: Why are you leaving? What is your compensation target? Given the right opportunity, to which cities can you relocate?" And so on.

I will also ask the candidate if they have a Twitter feed and a blog.

In 2008, a little flap arose in the blogosphere regarding resumes and whether or not candidates actually needed them. I won't rehash that debate here. Of course you need a resume.

But blogs can be incredibly important as well. A blog will help me understand if a candidate has a teachable point of view in their functional area of interest -- i.e. email marketing, organic and paid search, usability, affiliate marketing, and so on. A great blog can really differentiate a candidate (or a recruiter!).

But there's a downside, too.

If your blog is average, then I'll hold it against you. If you show poor judgment regarding what to put on your blog, then I will assume that you will show poor judgment regarding what to put on my client's website.

Remember: I have one of the only jobs in the world that allows me to visit my client's actual place of business without ever leaving my office.
If a client calls me and wants me to handle their search, I only need to see their website to appreciate what they are trying to accomplish online.

So, the question for you ecommerce candidates is this: If you have a blog, what are YOU trying to accomplish online? Is it in line with my client's objectives? Because if you are applying for a director of online retail marketing role but your blog is about B2B marketing, for example -- then I know that as a candidate, you are essentially inauthentic. Your blog has ratted you out.

And it doesn't end there.

Your Technorati tags can betray you too. if your tags are for things like "real estate sales," "online lead generation," "sales presentations," and the like, then I will ask myself "Does this person really see himself as a director of online retail marketing? Is transactional ecommerce his first love?"

My clients want to hire career ecommerce executives, not just marketers who are applying to their jobs for reasons related to their jobs' and geographic or financial reasons.

Your blog roll will give you away as well. I have been a blogger since 2005. I have read hundreds, maybe thousands, of weblogs and I know which ones are the most credible in the areas of marketing and e-commerce. If you are not linking to the best ones, then I will wonder why.

Now then, clearly I have some updating to do on my own blogroll. But my point is that your blogroll says a lot about you, and you candidates should be aware of that.
If you are going to be an ecommerce marketer, then everything about your blog needs to be top-flight in these ten areas ...

Your blog should have a keyword rich URL -- This is first and foremost in personal branding and SEO-friendliness. The best blogs resemble online trade magazines, where the URL matches the industry, and the content matches the URL.

Editorial platform and content -- Your blog should be a showcase for industry thought-leadership. If you are not a thought leader (yet!), then interview people who are and post that content online.

Your writing style --How are your articles structured? Are they easy to read? Do they flow? Are your arguments cogent and academically sound? Does your copy contain fragments, run-ons, and misspellings? It shouldn't. BTW, the world's greatest copywriters have long said that the best way to tell if copy is great is to make a ten year old boy read your copy aloud. If it sounds stilted and wooden when a boy reads it, then you should re-write it.

The look and feel of your blog -- Do you use photos and videos effectively? What does your blog's imagery have to say about you and your industry? If I couldn't read, would the images and video still tell me that I'm in the right place?

The navigation -- Is it obvious to the passerby how he should interact with you as a professional and as a jobseeker? Remember the AIDA model. When someone visits your site, they have obviously been made "aware" of you. Great! Now, how to you convert awareness to interest? (And how would you gauge that interest??)

Your use of affiliate programs, such as Amazon.com -- This one's a "gravy" item, but it let's me know that you've got game.

Your use of link bait and other forms of online promotion -- More gravy, more game.

Your use of attention-grabbing, SEO-friendly headlines and subheads. This is all about SEO survival, and that's what my clients want.

Your branding elements, which is something that I personally take very very seriously.

Your reader comments and trackbacks -- Who is reading your blog?? Are they thought leaders in your industry? Are they engaged? Do they leave intelligent comments that contribute something meaningful to the discussion? Check out Kevin Ertell's blog, RetailShakenNotStirred. Kevin is doing everything right in all of the above areas. Kevin even has the branding elements down cold.

I could go on but I won't. My point is that if you have a blog, then make sure it actually provides support to your career objectives. Even if hiring managers won't spell out exactly what turns them off about your blog, just understand that the details matter.

CHICAGO, IL - I am in the relationship building business, and every relationship starts at "hello." When you and I first speak, it's safe to say that I don't know you. I am an optimist by nature, so I am prepared to like you. Indeed, I want to like you. Truly, you have nothing to fear in an interaction with me.

Like a doctor, I'll be asking you some questions about your current situation:

"Are you currently employed?"

"Why are you leaving your current job?"

"Have you ever been convicted of a felony?"

"To what cities can you relocate?"

And very importantly, "What is your compensation target, including base, bonus, options, and other miscellaneous payment in kind?"

People hate to answer this last question because they fear 1.) being automatically knocked out of the process if their number is too high, or 2.) “leaving too much money on the table” if their number is too low. Damned if you do. I get it.

The “How much money do you make?” question is the most blunt instrument in my grab bag of interview questions. It's one of the only questions in the entire hiring process to which the answer isn't subjective. It is a terrible question to ask, but I really have no choice: It helps me determine the financial dimensions of your strike zone.

The alternative to your not disclosing this information is me bringing you opportunities that are clearly untenable for you in economic terms. Neither of us wants that. And trust me, my clients don't want to vet candidates who will be impossible to close later on in the process.

A blast from the past: "Negotiating a Higher Job Salary"

I am well aware that in previous posts I have warned readers in no uncertain terms to not answer this question. That advice pertained to candidates who were dealing directly with employers. But beware: In such instances, some HR-types will knock you out of the process for 'being difficult."

I won't! Primarily because I'm not an HR-type.

The difference between me and one of my clients is that, as a contingency based recruiter, I make money in direct proportion to the amount of money my client pays you. Like Ari Gold and Vincent Chase, your economic interests are completely aligned with mine: I genuinely want you to take a step up financially. I'm on your side!

And trust me, if my clients did not think you were worth the added investment, they wouldn't make you an offer, and we'd both walk away empty handed.

We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living but not a life. We’ve added years to life, not life to years.

The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let's put the 2011 federal budget into perspective:

U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000

Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000

New debt: $1,650,000,000,000

National debt: $14,271,000,000,000

Recent budget cut: $38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family.

Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700

Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200

Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500

Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710

Amount cut from the budget: $385

So in effect last month Congress, or in this example the Jones family, sat down at the kitchen table and agreed to cut $385 from its annual budget. What family would cut $385 of spending in order to solve $16,500 in deficit spending? It is a start, although hardly a solution.

Now after years of this, the Jones family has $142,710 of debt on its credit card (which is the equivalent of the national debt). You would think the Jones family would recognize and address this situation, but it does not. Neither does Congress. The root of the debt problem is that the voters typically do not send people to Congress to save money. They are sent there to bring home the bacon to their own home state.

To effect budget change, we need to change the job description and give Congress new marching orders. It is awfully hard (but not impossible) to reverse course and tell the government to stop borrowing money from our children and spending it now. In effect, what we have is a reverse mortgage on the country. The problem is that the voters have become addicted to the money.

Moreover, the American voters are still in the denial stage, and do not want to face the possibility of going into rehab.

An old Cherokee told his grandson, "My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment , inferiority, lies & ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, & truth." The boy thought about it, and asked, "Grandfather, which wolf wins?"

If I were an unemployed CFO ... I'd buy the domain "FinanceRecruiting.com" (which is currently available on SnapNames for $5,492) and I'd award it to the first finance recruiter who found me a job. After all, if an executive can expect to hunt for a new job one month for every $10K in earnings -- then $5,492 is less than three week's pay.

Plus: Think of the publicity! Start a blog at FinanceRecruiting.com and watch as people back-link to it in droves. Then, you'll not only be giving away a domain -- you'll be giving away a shot at a lifetime of SEO mojo in Google. If you think I'm kidding, I'm not. MarketingHeadhunter.com has dominated Google's marketing recruitment SERPs for five years. I speak from experience.

Seriously. According to recruiting research king, Shally Steckerl, there are >900,000 recruiters on Linkedin, and I think most of them are totally undifferentiated. They could use a domain like this. And don't say you can't afford it. Wimp!! Simply put it on your credit card and then hold out for a fat sign-on bonus from your next employer.

Anyway, that's what I'd do. Here's the auction. Don't forget: You can review my tutorial on how to find industry-specific recruiters on LinkedIn right here ...

ATLANTA, GA - This week I hired an intern to help me with some of my research needs around the office. The intern will support me and Allan Seibert, my new recruiter who's kicking all kinds of butt. Since hiring Allan after passing on him, I have been trying to figure out how to hire more people like him.

It's not so easy.

One time I hired a guy from Wharton who didn't work out. Another time I hired a lady from Brown who didn't work out. Allan, on the other hand, is a hungry as hell kid fresh out of the University of Georgia's Terry business school, and he's working out great. It's amazing to see this guy's growth in such a short period of time.

At least in my business, the formula for success seems to be 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Allan is not above anything: He'll call anyone. He'll do anything. He'll handle any search, no matter what level. He's not above anything. Totally can-do. Man, I sure do love that. Finally!

And clients, be forewarned: Allan sounds like he's from the sticks (because he is), but he's "dumb as a fox" as we like to say in the South. You'd be crazy to underestimate him. Wicked street smarts, I tell you. AND: Over time, his southern accent is disappearing. I'm very proud of him and wish I could buy 10% of his earnings in perpetuity.

Anyway.

We get this new intern, and I'm interviewing him. Smart kid. Soft-spoken. Well groomed. Very likable. University of Georgia B-school student in risk management. Allan recommends him highly, so I figure what the heck? At 10 bucks an hour plus big project completion bonuses, what can I lose? In fact, my mind's kind of made up that I'm going to hire the kid before I even interview him.

Naturally, I start messing with him during the interview. Not in a mean way, but in a Charlie Rose way where I'm seizing on every little point and trying to develop a conversation that's actually going somewhere. I won't get into the specifics because I'm sure that Allan, who reads this blog, will show Thomas, the new guy, this blog post. Let's just say that Thomas didn't exactly "lean into it" during the interview because they don't teach you that in college.

And I asked Thomas “If this is an internship and your real goal is to get a job in January as a risk manager, what kind of experience would you like to get to make you more marketable to any company who's going to hire you?” Naturally, Thomas gives me a blank stare. Whoever heard of such a question? Nobody at Terry, that's for sure.

At the end of the interview, I said to Thomas “Your first assignment from me is to submit a resume with the experience that you want to have by January. Monday is a holiday. Have it on my desk by Tuesday."

In a perfect world, this would be a fairly standard thing with all job seekers. You have your current resume, and you decide your current job sucks or whatever, and you decide to look for new job. Wouldn't it make sense to create a future resume with your ideal next job? With the ideal next title? The ideal next responsibilities? The ideal company? The ideal industry? You get the idea.

Like most people, I'm a very reasonable person. I understand that life is about trade-offs, and if you are willing to come into my company and help me grow my business, then I should give you something in return above and beyond money. Just tell me EXACTLY what you want, and I'll do my best to get it for you.

But here's the kicker: Before you can tell me what you want, you have to know what you want.